Joe Pudas

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Mark your calendar for ‘Knocked Up’

Show remorse or be ‘condemned’

Professional wrestling is such a curious phenomenon—it's loaded to the gills with testosterone, silicone and displays of loudly macho, presumably alpha-male behavior—yet it's really nothing more than masculine soap opera. Both share the same production hallmarks of hastily scripted, histrionic melodrama with lots of feuds and filler, exploiting the elements most attractive to their respective demographics. 

‘First Snow’ a terribly huge blow

As a concept, fate is incredibly universal, because it attempts to clarify and impose meaning on the very nature of existence. Is every minute action we take one more step toward reaching our predetermined destiny? Or, is life a completely random, chaotic series of events in which, as Sarah Connor would say, the only fate is what we make for ourselves?  

Glory days of ‘grindhouse’ revisited

Hardcore moviegoers often fall into two camps: elitists, who love the medium but typically reserve their enjoyment for the most prestigious, highbrow films, and enthusiasts, those film buffs that are hopelessly, giddily obsessed with every facet of the cinema. Grindhouse theaters in the 1970s catered to the latter category of moviegoer, serving up sleazy double, triple and sometimes quadruple features of unrestrained mayhem and carnality.  

‘Shooter’ off the mark

Over the years, especially the most recent ones, violence in action movies has become a lot more brutal and a lot less fun. Thanks to this decade's two most influential action-oriented narratives—the TV blockbuster ""24,"" which features Jack Bauer torturing the shit out of nefarious people for the greater good, and ""The Bourne Identity,"" which revels in nasty bouts of hand-to-hand combat—the line between ""hard R"" action and formerly neutered PG-13 action blurs more every day. In this present environment, when little differentiates an R-rated action movie from Monday night's primetime lineup, where does a meat-and-potatoes guy movie like ""Shooter"" fit in? 

Zodiac’s horoscope looking bleak

Thrillers based on unsolved mysteries are inherently problematic. A mystery without a payoff doesn't send anyone home happy. David Fincher largely manages to sidestep this built-in handicap with ""Zodiac,"" a sprawling, compelling drama centering on the long, inevitably fruitless search for the elusive Zodiac killer. But be forewarned, hardcore fans of ""Se7en"" and ""Fight Club"": this is not your typical Fincher film—fast-paced, breathless and ultra-violent—rather, ""Zodiac"" is meditative, subtle and mostly devoid of violence. 

23 problems and Carrey is one

In the ""Cancelled"" episode of ""South Park,"" aliens kidnap our tyke heroes, leaving Chef and Jeff Goldblum's scientist from ""Independence Day"" to find out where they've been taken. Goldblum figures out that i'

Johnson directs ‘Rider’ into the grave

There are good movies, there are bad movies and then there are movies like ""Ghost Rider,"" which is so unbelievably, inconceivably, jaw-droppingly bad that it defies categorization.  

‘Volver’ a charming, delightful dramedy

As any follower of contemporary pop culture could tell you, beauty doesn't always have a whole lot to do with acting ability, and after a while, serious actresses need to display at least some shred of talent in order to stick around in the limelight. The Academy tends to reward gorgeous celebrities that glam themselves down for edgy roles with fake noses, brave weight acquisitions, humbling makeup, you name it. Until ""Volver,"" Pedro AlmodA3var's sublimely original new dramedy, PenAclope Cruz was in a similar predicament.  

Though grand in its attempt, ‘Perfume’ proves to be unfilmable

Creating an original, compelling film from scratch is hard enough, but adapting a popular novel into a successful movie brings its own unique set of complications. With the exception of books by authors like Elmore Leonard, who writes terse yet vivid prose that is naturally cinematic, it's impossible to perfectly replicate material from the page to the silver screen. Then there are those pesky books that, for one reason or another are deemed unfilmable,"" like ""Naked Lunch,"" ""A Confederacy of Dunces"" or anything by Kurt Vonnegut or Thomas Pynchon. Patrick Suskind's 1985 cult novel ""Perfume: The Story of Murderer"" was considered one of them after some notable filmmakers""such as Stanley Kubrick""tried and failed to adapt it. But now ""Run Lola Run"" director Tom Tykwer has done it, and while his ""Perfume"" is a visually astounding, well-paced effort, the results are certainly mixed.